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domingo, 3 de novembro de 2013

Loulou de la
Falaise

“Loulou de La Falaise has
always been one of the more original dressers—putting bits and pieces together
with wit, color, and sometimes, inspired madness,”[1]Vogue wrote in 1972. At just 24, the bright young style-setter had
already blazed a colorful streak through London, where she was a teenage mover
and shaker in the swinging sixties; and New York, where she posed for Vogue—frolicking
in a monkey-fur bolero for Richard Avedon—and became a Halstonette.

By the early seventies, de La Falaise was in Paris at the bidding of Yves Saint Laurent, a designer poised at the crossroads of couture and the budding luxury
ready-to-wear market. Into Saint Laurent’s salon Loulou sailed, bringing with
her a fresh, free spirit and magpie eye for flash and color. Initially, de La
Falaise’s role wasn’t clear—since meeting her at a tea party a few years
before, Saint Laurent was simply smitten with her bohemian glamour. “Yves saw
me and was dazzled. He immediately gave me loads of clothes to mix with mine,”[2] she
later said. Coming out of Mod London, however, de La Falaise, a fashion editor
for the British society magazine Queen, thought the finery “pretty
straight. English fashion was not that aware of French couture. It was in its
own world of miniskirts. I got to Paris and thought, ‘Why have these people not
moved
on?’ ”[3]

Like a hippie Mary Poppins,
the plumed-and-turbaned de La Falaise—now working as Saint Laurent’s assistant
—pulled any number of fabulous finds from her proverbial bag: airy chiffon
prints, Indian scarves, and silver bangles all fluttering and clanking onto his
desk. She also came armed with trunkfuls of chic togs passed down to her mother
from her eccentric grandmother. (The wife of the society portraitist Sir Oswald
Birley, Lady Rhoda was known to feed Lobster Thermidor to her roses; Loulou’s
mother, Maxime de La Falaise, was a model and muse for the groundbreaking
couturiere Elsa Schiaparelli.)

“She is an artist of the
safety pin,” said the designer Fernando Sanchez, who first introduced Loulou to
Yves. “Three pins and two pieces of cloth, and she has four ravishing evening
dresses.”[4]Manolo Blahnik—the
haute cobbler who was moved to design raffia platforms after catching a glimpse
of her in turban, poppies, and cork espadrilles on the King’s Road—agreed. “She
dresses from the cutting-room floor,” he told Vogue, “but she puts her
stamp on whatever she wears.”[5]

In 1978, The Washington
Post proclaimed de La Falaise and Paloma Picasso the queens of Paris’s
disco society; they glittered and glided across the floor at Le Palace until
7:30 a.m. On a typical night out, Loulou’s getup might approximate “a sort of
pirate, troubadour, and medieval page,”[6] she
later recalled. Fired up from a night of dancing, she often headed straight
into the atelier, spilling the night’s glamour into Yves’s eager ear. From
Loulou, his “little miracle,”[7] as he
called her, Saint Laurent absorbed the swirling colors and passions of the
time, and translated them into his designs: jumping Russian Cossacks, Chinese
empresses, Marrakech’s exotic palette. So infused was each collection with her
joie-de-madcap style that staffers at 5 Avenue Marceau would later refer to the
line as “Yves de Loulou.”

Although she is today often
identified simply as Saint Laurent’s muse, de La Falaise in fact worked pencil-to-pencil
with him for three decades, designing as many as 2,000 pieces of jewelry per
year, as well as hats, knitwear, and garments from the couture, seasonal, and
Rive Gauche lines. With her coppery curls, piercing blue eyes, and infectious,
throaty laugh, she was a bright foil to Saint Laurent’s brooding darkness,
drawing him out with her youth and ebullience.

Both Loulou and the blonde,
androgynous beauty Betty Catroux—whom Yves referred to as his “twin sister”[8]—served
as walking mood boards from which Saint Laurent drew endless inspiration. De La
Falaise, in particular, was integral to his design process; without her at his
side, the house of Saint Laurent would not have been the same. “She is charm,
poetry, excess, extravagance, and elegance all in one blow,”[9] he said.

Loulou once confided the
secret to devil-may-care chic to Vogue: “We’re self-invented creatures,”
she said. “You
start by creating yourself.”[10]

HISTORY

Louise Vava Lucia Henriette Le Bailly de La Falaise born to Alain Le
Bailly and Maxime Birley de La Falaise. Her father is a French count; her
mother, an Anglo-Irish beauty who served as model-vendeuse-muse for designer
Elsa Schiaparelli, and posed for Vogue.
(Loulou will later claim to have been baptized by Schiaparelli’s Shocking
perfume.)

A
brother, Alexis, born.

Due to mother Maxime’s numerous affairs, her marriage to Alain falls
apart. Loulou and Alexis are sent to the country where they will be cared for
by foster families. “He was living his life and she was living hers,” Loulou
will later tell a reporter. “There was no question of us staying with either of
them. It’s possible my mother lost custody of me. She never told me.”[11] Loulou is later kicked out of boarding schools in Sussex, where she
puts slugs in her schoolmates’ shoes; and Gstaad, where she harbors a St.
Bernard in her room (soon after she adopts it, the giant dog savages a poodle).



Lady
Rhoda Birley, Loulou’s eccentric grandmother, neglects to put a formal
coming-out notice for her granddaughter in the London Times, or add her to the official debutante list. Not one for
stuffy dances anyway, young Loulou lives it up in St. John’s Wood. Dressed in
flowing Ossie Clark, the 17-year-old free spirit becomes a fixture of Swinging
London.



Marries
Irish aristocrat Desmond FitzGerald, the 29th Knight of Glin. The bride wears a
Chaucerian wimple draped from antique lace. A portrait of the new Madam
FitzGerald by Cecil Beaton later appears in British Vogue.
Loulou moves into the crenellated family castle on the Shannon. Her husband
flies in planeloads of London pals for house parties. “She was so excited by
dressing up,” FitzGerald will later tell Vogue.
“Any excuse and out would come peacock feathers, strange belts, stage jewelry.”[12] However, the restless Loulou will soon grow bored with castle life, and
the couple amicably separate a year later.



Works as
a junior fashion editor at British style magazine Queen. At a tea party given by Paris designer Fernando Sanchez,
meets Yves Saint Laurent and his business manager, Pierre Bergé. Sanchez had
promised an introduction to “Yves and Pierre”; Loulou, who hadn’t heard of
Saint Laurent, believed he meant Mod designer Pierre Cardin, and was a bit let
down. “We had Mary Quant, Carnaby Street, Ossie Clark . . . we thought France
was stuffy,”[13] she will later recall. After Saint Laurent does a funny impression, the
two hit it off. “We giggled . . . we dressed up,”[14] she will later tell Vogue.



Divorces
Desmond FitzGerald. Moves to New York City, where she shares a Second Avenue
cold-water flat with model Berry Berenson. “I was a divorcée at 21. I thought
it was the most glamorous thing in the world,”[15] de La Falaise will later recall. She hangs out with models Veruschka
and Pat Cleveland, the illustrator Antonio Lopez, and Roy Halston, for whom she designs fabrics—including one of little rabbits with
erections. Vogue
editor-in-chief Diana Vreeland taps de La Falaise to model for the magazine. In September, the gay
divorcée kicks up her heels for an eight-page fashion portfolio in Vogue, shot by Richard Avedon.



Saint
Laurent sends de La Falaise pieces from his controversial Hommage aux Années 40
collection. Inspired by 1940s fashions in Paris during the Nazi Occupation, the
short skirts and platform shoes have a hint of hooker-chic. The daring retro
pieces outrage older clients who lived through the war, but are taken up by the
younger generation. Loulou flaunts a Saint Laurent Kelly-green fox chubby
around New York.



Saint
Laurent asks Loulou to work with him in Paris. February:Vogue captures de La Falaise, Diane von
Furstenberg, and
others at a fête for Cabaret
star Liza Minnelli, hosted at Paris’s Club Privé by Minnelli’s co-star in the
film, Marisa Berenson (sister of roomie Berry). March:Vogue spotlights the French-English beauty’s witty style. August:
The magazine admires her sleek new crop—“a breeze to deal with”[16]—by Paris hairstylist Guillaume.



In her Vogue food column, Loulou’s mother,
Maxime, lists the culinary favorites of Saint Laurent and his intimate circle,
including Loulou, Pierre Bergé, and Betty Catroux.



Vogue spotlights fashion’s “big
guns” in Paris, London, and Italy. Deborah Turbeville captures Saint Laurent—“the genius who achieves the perfect balance
between change and continuity”[17]—and two of his muses, de La Falaise and Marina Schiano.



Marries
writer Thadée Klossowski de Rola, son of the painter Balthus. “For the
ceremony, the handsome Thadée was dressed entirely in white, and his bride, who
was dressed as a 16th-century maharaja in harem pants, sported a turban
sprouting a flame-colored aigrette and carried a fistful of beribboned red
anemones,”[18]Vogue
writer Hamish Bowles will later note. Afterward, some 2,000 guests, including dancers from
gay hotspot Le Sept, are ferried out to an island in the Bois de Boulogne for a
night of revelry. (Future Vogue
editor Andre Leon Talley, dapper in a white Le Smoking, is among the guests.) Loulou dances till dawn in a silver-streaked
indigo sari dress and a homemade cardboard crown of moons and stars.



Throws a
memorable costume ball at Paris disco glitterbox Le Palace. Guests are required
to come as angels; Loulou shows up as the devil. De La Falaise becomes the
public face of the house of Saint Laurent, appearing at public events in the
designer’s stead. Soon, she begins overseeing the Rive Gauche label with studio
director Anne-Marie Muñoz.



Daughter
Anna Baladine Rose Cassimira Klossowski born. She will grow up playing in the
Yves Saint Laurent atelier, and later pursue a career as an artist.



March:Irving Penn composes a regal portrait of all three generations of fabulous de La
Falaise women for Vogue.
Loulou’s niece, model Lucie de La Falaise, has been signed as the face of YSL
cosmetics. December: Lucie graces the cover of Vogue.



For the
first time, de La Falaise receives credit in the couture show notes for her
jewelry designs. (However, the pieces don’t bear her name—“Imagine, I’d always
have to make such huge jewels to get it all on!”[19] she jokes.)



Following
an acquisition by the Gucci Group, Tom Ford takes over the design of the Rive Gauche label. “We’re less stressed
now,” de La Falaise tells W
magazine. “We have more time to work on the couture . . . I think it was time
for Yves to let go a little bit.”[20]



Yves
Saint Laurent presents his last couture collection and retires.



De La
Falaise branches out on her own with a line of signature jewelry, accessories,
and clothing. She will later expand into home decor. Opens a flagship boutique,
La Maison de Loulou, on Paris’s Rue Cambon (another store later opens on Rue
Bourgogne). In July Vogue,
longtime pal André Leon Talley gives an inside peek. “Imagine stepping inside a
giant lacquered box brought home via steamer from China—with reds, golds, and a
dragon motif—and that’s de La Falaise,”[21] he writes.



Receives
an honorary degree from San Francisco’s Academy of Art University. For popular
Paris boutique Colette, designs a limited-edition waxed-cotton bracelet with a
vermeil wolf, her signature leitmotif. (“Lou lou” sounds a lot like “wolf wolf”
in French.) Launches a diffusion line of jewelry and decorative objects, Loulou
de La Falaise Fantaisies. “Each piece is a fantasy because things shouldn’t be
serious, but fun and enhancing,”[22] she says.



Designs
fine jewelry for Oscar de la Renta’s fall show. Launches an affordable line of costume jewelry and
handbags with home-shopping giant HSN. The range later expands to include
footwear and clothing. Yves Saint Laurent dies. To his funeral, de La Falaise
wears “what looked like an homage
to Marlene Dietrich: an impeccable YSL black linen jacket, pencil skirt,
stockings, patent leather peep-toe heels, and a fabulous black fedora tilted at
just the right angle. She kept her sunglasses on during the two-hour Mass,”[23]Vogue
columnist André Leon Talley notes.



Dies from
liver cancer at the age of 64, at home in the Vexin region of Northwest France.

A fly by imagination

And life passes so quickly...

Because literature is part of our history.

The main idea of this Blog is spread the habit of reading. Literature is part of our lives. When enter in the Literature world, we read better and we improve our though and imagination.I want, with this, divide a little of my dreams. Is to give opportunity to people read and know about works produced by ancient and contemporary writers, and mainly, myself to be insert in this wonderful world of the Letters.